BACK TO BASICS: The Beginner's Guide to Social Media Optimization

There's a great sense of relief when you finally admit to yourself
that, though it sounds cool, you have no idea what it means to Digg,
Stumble or Spurl. That you spell delicious without random periods and
that, in your world, Reddit is two words and not at all spelled like
that. As an average Web user, you don't have to be a fan of social
media optimization. However, as a site owner, you do need to know that
it exists and be aware of the effects and potential benefits it could
have on your site.

Social media optimization has become the hot new buzzword over the
last 12 months, similar to the way "the long tail" dominated conference
speak before that. If you're a frequent blog reader or conference
attendee you've probably heard about sites like Wikipedia, Digg, and
del.icio.us, but you may not know why getting there could be crucial to
the success of your site. Who cares about Furl and Reddit anyway?

Well, your customers might. And if they do, being there will keep
your brand name in the front of their mind and could send you thousands
of new visitors.

What Is Social Media Optimization

What Is Social Media Optimization

If search engine optimization is about breaking down crawling
barriers to help the engines fully index your site, social media
optimization is about knocking down site walls so content can be easily
found, distributed and shared by the community. This process may simply
mean embedding a "Digg This" button on your site blog or it may mean
spending hours to create a piece of compelling content, aka linkbait,
that could either drive thousands of visitors to your site or have no
effect at all.

The right link magnet, presented at the right time, to the right
audience can bring an unimaginable amount of traffic to your site. For a
company just starting out, getting on the front page of Digg can offer
instant visibility and credibility. For an establish company, it can
strengthen your brand and turn you into a household name. The key to
social media is knowing how to leverage it. And your ability to leverage
it depends on your ability to attract, engage and convert new visitors.

Reaching out to social communities to bring attention your brand
isn't a new concept; however, thanks to today's technology, when done
right, the power, effect and benefit of social media optimization is
huge. In a recent article entitled Anatomy of a Super Digg,
Daniel Tynski shared his company's experience with a client who spent
ten minutes creating a throwaway article specifically targeted towards
social media. The article was submitted to Digg and in 7 days the client
was rewarded with more than 3,000 backlinks, 532 links from
del.icio.us, an enormous swell in Alexa rankings, and an impressive
(though temporary) surge in rankings for many of the client's targeted
keywords.

What's the benefit to SMO?

What's the benefit to SMO?

The benefits of social media vary depending on what you're looking to
do. For some sites, the greatest benefit to SMO is the instant exposure
and influx of inbound links it creates. With any luck, a significant
portion of your new links will be coming from quality sites in your
field. However, if not, these effects are often short-lived and traffic
alone doesn't equal conversions and increased revenue for most sites.
You need to be able to capture those first-time visitors and convert
them into loyal site community members.

The real benefit to optimizing your site for social media is it
inspires you to create excellent, keyword-rich content, which in turn
can help build your online and offline brand, increase quality inbound
links over time, make you a subject matter expert, and expose your
content to thousands of new visitors. It reinforces what you should be
working towards through your search engine optimization campaign.

Getting Started and Establishing Your Goals

Getting Started and Establishing Your Goals

As with SEO, most sites can benefit from some form of social media
optimization but your strategy needs to be designed to compliment the
specifics of your site.

When determining which site/s are right for you, you need to consider
the type of site you're trying to market. If you're a technology
company with a great blog, submitting posts to Digg may be beneficial
for you. However, don't assume Digg is automatically a match simply
because it's the only social media site you've heard of. If your Web
site specializes in customizable baby apparel, the college-aged, tech
savvy crowd at Digg is not your core demographic and your post will be
buried. In this scenario, you're probably better of tagging your content
at one of the social bookmarking sites or creating a community profile
on Flickr.

Without knowing your audience there's no way you can offer them a
great tool or a compelling piece of content. You need to consider what
actions will produce the strongest reaction and use the least amount of
resources. Take into account what your desired outcome is. Are you
looking for increased conversions, traffic, links, industry credibility,
brand recognition, something else? All of this will be vital in helping
you plan your attack.

Planning Your Attack

Planning Your Attack

Once you know your goals you can start deciding which sites are best
geared towards helping you meet them. Right now the three sites that
seem to be driving the most traffic are Digg, StumbleUpon and
del.icio.us, respectively. Is it worth spending a few thousands of
dollars to develop a great industry chart to get it on the front page of
Digg? If you do it right and can manage the traffic, it might be.

Take time to understand the focus of each individual site. It's often
better to create campaigns geared toward one social media site rather
than create one campaign and shoot it over all over the Web. If you're
looking for links and your content fits with their audience, submit to
Digg. If you're looking to create some sort of viral marketing campaign,
MySpace may be more effective.

Here is a very short list of some of the most popular sites for social media optimization:

Digg: Digg is a user-driven content site where
members can vote, bury and comment on stories submitted by other
members. Getting onto Digg's front page often results in thousands of
visitors flocking to your site and can have lasting ranking effects.

Digg Tip: The same story can only be submitted once, so craft
your titles carefully. Also, don't forget to embed the "Dig This" button
on your site so users can easily submit content for you.

Del.icio.us: Del.icio.us is a Yahoo-owned social
bookmarking site. Del.icio.us allows members to publicly save bookmarks
using tags. Don't be afraid to tag your own content.

Del.icio.us Tip: All links are nofollow so you're not getting
link love, but you may get click throughs and direct traffic when users
find your del.icio.us bookmarks through the search engine's index.

YouTube Tip: The five sites that bring the most traffic to
YouTube receive a link back from the site. This probably won't help with
your Google rankings, but it may help your rankings in the other
engines.

Newsvine: Another social news site where members
can submit news stories, comment on other popular stories, create
connections with regular users.

Newsvine Tip: Your Newsvine user name becomes your own subdomain, so make sure to use keywords in your profile.

StumbleUpon: StumbleUpon acts as a
discovery/recommendation engine and match users with Web sites, videos,
images, etc. based on their interests that they may have been previously
unaware of.

Be Linkable

Be Linkable

Phase One: Once you know your goals and where you
want to submit, your next objective is to be linkable. This is by far
the most difficult and the most important step in any SMO campaign. To
be linkable, you must create content that is worthy of being linked to
and make that content accessible to users.

One of the quickest ways to make your content more accessible is to
allow tags and to add a "Digg This", "Add to del.icio.us" or Technorati
chicklet to your Web site and RSS feed. By making tagging and
bookmarking easy for users, it encourages readers to submit the content
for you. This not only helps to increase readership, but it also builds
your site-wide community.

Phase Two: The second part of the linkability
process is the hardest part of SMO. You must create something unique,
compelling and worthy enough of being submitted and linked to. One
reason why this is so difficult is because you can do anything. There
are no boundaries.

Don't think that just because you're a company that sells paper cups
you don't have the opportunity to create irresistible linkbait. You do.
Any subject is linkbait-able, regardless of how mundane it seems on the
surface. Maybe you feel that creating an article about paper cups won't
be exciting enough to bring in new visitors, but how about creating a
tool that counts how many water-filled Brand X paper cups it would take
to fill the Mississippi river. Or creating a Flash game where users can
practice their entrepreneurial skills selling fruit punch in your paper
cups. Or encourage users to create and submit their own videos
explaining what they love about the paper cup. The more ridiculous the
idea, the more it will excite visitors, and the greater success you'll
have with it.

Link magnets don't have to be flashy. If creating a showy Flash video
doesn't fit within the theme of your site, try authoring a valuable
educational resource for your industry. Compile a list of the best
sites/bloggers in your field to make it easy for those in your network
to find information. Write the most well-researched, in-depth article on
How To Do [X]. Create a tool that solves a common problem for members
in your field. The possibilities are endless. It just takes a little
thought and creativity.

Whatever you do, resist the temptation to spam the social media
sites. The only way your SMO campaign will be successful is if it's
genuine. Don't submit content that doesn't fit with the community you're
entering. Sites like Digg or Wikipedia are very good at seeing through
blatant self-promotion. Make sure you're offering a clear benefit to the
community, otherwise prepare to be flamed and tossed out. The backlash
from "abusing" a community like Digg could turn into a PR nightmare for
your company, completely voiding any goodwill you had hoped to create.

If you're going to submit content to sites like Digg, Reddit or
Newsvine, write a personalized email to a dozen or so relevant bloggers
before you submit in order to get some early links. A little work
upfront could help get the ball rolling and have a big impact on your
overall success.

It's also recommend that site owners use a common username among all
the different social media sites. This helps establish yourself in the
various communities and makes it appear like you're a trusted member and
not just out for quick links, even if you are.

Accept Failure and Try Again

Accept Failure and Try Again

The truth is, even after you've followed the rules faithfully, your
first dozen (or two) attempts probably won't work. It takes time to
create the momentum you need to establish yourself in the various
communities. However, once one of your items does hit, you'll understand
what all the fuss was about and why social media optimization is worth
all the hard work.

You also can't let up once you get that first taste of success. If
you want to maintain the traffic you are receiving, you have to continue
to participate. Your success in social media will wholeheartedly depend
on user engagement.

Adopt Social Media But Don't Forget SEO

Adopt Social Media But Don't Forget SEO

Social media gives site owners a way to gain visibility to their
sites without relying strictly on the search engines. It's a powerful
tool for building brand recognition and increasing visibility but don't
mistake SMO for a substitute to search engine optimization. Social media
optimization just gives site owners another set of tools to add to
their marketing toolbox. Keeping abiding by the optimization tactics
that have proven to be successful for the long-term and experiment with
new methods to help give your site a boost when needed. Together social
media optimization and SEO pack a power punch, both for you and your
users.

HQ Hours of Operation:
8:30am to 5:30 pm Pacific timeDays of Operation:
Monday through Friday – email works other times in many casesSupport Operations:
M-F 9:00 to 5:00 Email Support FormTraining Facility:
Please see the training facility map